Internet-Based Electric Meter with Theft Detection, Theft Notification and Consumption Monitoring for Residential Power Lines Using Wireless Network Technology
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International Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & Telecommunications Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019 Internet-Based Electric Meter with Theft Detection, Theft Notification and Consumption Monitoring for Residential Power Lines Using Wireless Network Technology Maria Criselda B. Loyola, Jhamel B. Bueno, and Roshmeir D. De Leon Electrical Engineering Department, Malayan Colleges Laguna, Cabuyao City, Philippines Email: [email protected]; {jhamelbueno1996; rxmeir.deleon}@gmail.com Abstract—In support of a proposed bill in the Philippines, electrocution. These are punishable by law under the the Recoverable System Loss Act, which aims to reduce the Republic Act 7832, the “Anti-Electricity, Electric Power system losses cap thus making electricity cheaper, the Lines, Equipment, and Materials Pilferage Act.” objective of this project is to help the distribution utility and Electric pilferage is accounted for under non- the consumer in decreasing the incidences of power theft. technical system loss. Distribution utilities charge each An electric meter which features theft detection and notification, and an internet-based energy consumption consumer a certain percentage for system loss. monitoring system were designed to alleviate the problem. Therefore, even though a consumer does not steal Theft detection is achieved through the utilization of electricity, they are charged higher than what they microcontrollers and current sensors, while theft actually consumed. The distribution utility does not have notification is achieved through the utilization of LoRaWAN full responsibility of the incurred costs due to technology. The theft detection module can identify illegal electricity pilferage, which makes them unmotivated tapping and meter bypassing. A star network of electric perhaps to prioritize addressing the issue. The meters was implemented to test the LoRaWAN in an energy Recoverable System Loss Act proposed by the chairman metering application. The theft detection and notification of the Senate Committee on Energy aims to reduce modules were 100% successful in identifying and transmitting the correct type of theft. The watt-hour the cost of electricity in the Philippines by further measurement of the electric meter exhibited 99.9% accuracy reducing the system losses cap from 8.5% to 5% for in reference to a commissioned digital electric meter. In private distribution utilities and 13% to 10% for coordination with the electric meter, theft notifications and electric cooperatives, and the exemption from value- meter data were accessible to both the consumer and added tax of the system loss charge. distribution utility through an online energy monitoring Given the current situation of the Philippines’ system: enermon.tech. The LoRaWAN gateway was able to electrical distribution sector, the objective of this receive theft notifications from an electric meter node as far project was to design an electric power meter and an as 601 m line of sight with an average round trip time of internet-based energy consumption monitoring system. 33.09 milliseconds in the implemented area. This system provides immediate notification of the presence of pilferage The electric power meter features theft detection for for the distribution utility and consumer to address. residential power lines, and a theft notification system for both the consumer and distribution utility. This Index Terms—electricity pilferage, illegal tapping, electric power meter may help in improving the way the LoRaWAN, meter bypassing, non-technical system loss, government and distribution utilities address electricity wireless network pilferage in the Philippines. If adapted nationwide, incidences of power theft due to ‘jumpers’ could be I. INTRODUCTION reduced. The electric power meter cannot be tampered, One of the major concerns of Meralco, the country’s which eliminates the occurrences of theft due to meter largest private distributor of electricity, is the rising tampering. The electric meters were implemented in incidences of illegal tampering of electric meters, a LoRaWAN network to wirelessly transmit watt-hour ‘jumpers,’ and stealing of electric conductors. These acts data and theft notifications, which were displayed on of pilferage are serious threats to the safety of the the energy consumption monitoring website. community, because these acts result in fires and II. RELATED LITERATURE A. Electricty Pilferage and System Loss in the Philippines Manuscript received October 5, 2018; revised April 10, 2019; accepted May 6, 2019. According to a study [ 1 ] , electric energy is Corresponding author: Maria Criselda B. Loyola (email: mcbloyola frequently stolen by the lower and middle class who are @mcl.edu.ph). motivated by the desire to save money. The same study ©2019 Int. J. Elec. & Elecn. Eng. & Telcomm. 238 doi: 10.18178/ijeetc.8.5.238-246 International Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & Telecommunications Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019 categorized the issues of electric power theft to safety, the use of GSM technology provided more advantages economy and society. Power theft is a safety issue, for wireless transmission, as compared with previous because it can cause electrocution and fires. methods. Electricity theft is responsible for economic problems A study in press conducted by Loyola et al. [5] utilized in the electric utility due to revenue loss caused by unpaid microcontrollers, Zigbee and GSM technology to detect electricity of the consumers. The thieves have a tendency power theft and notify the consumer. The study was able to consume more energy, resulting to power quality to detect theft in the form of illegal jumpers and meter problems. An increase in power demand to values greater bypassing, and was successful in notifying the end-user than the transformer-rated power can result to different and the distribution utility via SMS. quality deviations like transformer overload, voltage Using GSM, however, limits the way of notifying the unbalance and steady-state voltage drop on system buses consumer and the distribution utility through Short [2]. Message Service (SMS) only. A comparative study by System loss charges represent the cost of electricity Khare et al. [6] stated that GSM modules offers a lost in the distribution system from the receiving point of limited data service. Using this type of communication private distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to system limits the scalability of the power theft detection the consumer’s metering point as defined by Recoverable and notification system, because it is impractical to System Loss Act of 2016. System loss can be classified install several GSM units to accommodate the data into ‘technical losses or ‘non-technical losses.’ Technical traffic in a large-scale application. losses refer to the losses due to power dissipation that In a study proposed by Tariq et al. [7], wireless occur in electrical system components in transmission sensor networks were used to detect and report the and distribution. Non- technical losses cannot be directly presence of illegal tapping. Their study used a taken into account, because they are losses that are due to Resistive Temperature Sensor (RTS) node to obtain the electricity pilferage and administration errors [3]. real-time measurement of the line resistance of circuit As stated in the R.A. 7832, system loss is charged to branches to detect the presence of illegal tapping. An the consumer, despite it being unconsumed power. The increase in the line resistance is a result of an increase law allows private distribution utilities and rural in the load that is due to illegal users [7]. Data gathered cooperatives to collect the costs of these losses through by the sensor nodes were transmitted through motes the system loss. The Chairman of the Senate Energy linked together to form a network. The network formed Committee Filed Senate Bill 1188 or the Recoverable by the motes connected to each electric meter will System Loss Act in attempt to lower the cost of increase the range of transmission. electricity. This bill seeks to lower the current cap of The integration of ZigBee-based wireless sensor system loss charges as mandated by the R.A. 7832 networks in the smart grid was proposed in [8]. Their from 8.5% to 5% for private distribution utilities and system can measure the consumer’s power consumption, 13% to 10% for electrical cooperatives. The bill also store the data in real-time and display the time of use proposes the exclusion of non-technical system losses values. The same study used ZigBee to collect and in the system loss charge that is passed on to the broadcast data and upload it to the consumer’s personal consumers. Meralco currently stands with 6.5% computer. The smart meter system includes a scheduling system loss charge, which is lower than the prescribed mechanism that allows the consumer to set the time of cap. usage of the electricity. Their smart meter system allows B. Previous Works on the Detection and Notification of the consumer to have control over their energy Electric Power Theft consumption in accordance to the smart grid concept. A study [3] proposed the use of a current monitoring Wireless sensor networks have a wide range of system to detect power theft in low-tension transmission applications in creating a manageable, reliable and lines. It proposed that power theft can be detected flexible smart grid [8]. This study applied the concept of when an imbalance of currents is detected between poles.